Prisoner
by Leiamoody of Ysonesse
Summary: Anakin is trapped in the Netherworld with no memory of who he was...or he might be.
1. A Prisoner In The Dark Valley

**A Prisoner In The Dark Valley**

_This is death._

His name still remains forgotten. All names here were to remain forgotten and unknown, except for the name of this place...The Dark Valley, a space in the Netherworld where he had been since...how long? How long had he been here, doing nothing more than wandering the shores of Bittersweet Dark, trapped in by the high mountains of black dust, swallowed up by the sky with no stars?

And where was the beginning? What made this happen? What event in time brought him here?

Time...it felt vaguely familiar. Moments forming years...different links in a chain binding together that was called...

_Only death is true now._

The Mistress spoke. Her voice was made of softness and sadness. She was a form of twisting darkness, deeper than the lightless water of the lake he could not cross.

_Look at what your sins have brought you._

It was raining. The rain of living essence...life? That was what moments bound together were called!

The Mistress whirled about his head. _Death is the only reality for you, Ani. It is your only truth._ She swam down past his shoulder, and spread out above the dark grass of the dead field. _You are to remain here in this valley, until your two selves can be rejoined._

His two selves? What did that mean?

The Mistress ascended into the midnight sky with no moon or any other celestial light to illuminate the scene.

He did not care. There was nothing to make him aware enough to give him a reason to care about anything. The Dark Valley was the place of loss of care. Nothing existed but the darkness and the river and the smoky sky and the Mistress.

And his name did not exist. But the Mistress had called him something...Ani. Nothing, it meant nothing. It felt like a name...and she had called him that word, so it must be his name.

If he could remember his identity, then why he was trapped here might finally be revealed.

From the farthest shore the Mistress spoke without voice once again. _You are here for atonement._

Atonement, another word with no meaning.

_Think of sins, Ani._

That word again: _Ani_. And now yet another one that was not familiar...but there was a feeling...sins. Blood. Sins. The living essence pours out from the body at the end of life, that state which is called death, when all sins have been committed. Death comes most painfully to those who have created the most heinous sins.

"Pain is my truth. My sins are the reflection of my pain." His voice uttered those words. The first time he could remember having the ability to speak since...

The twisted dead grey trees sitting high on the mountains murmured with the cold and metallic voice of an unlikely breeze. The voice breathed...the breathing was mechanical.

The sound was not the breathing of life, but the breathing of a life that wasn't alive. But how could that be? Dead things do not breathe. But if the breathing was mechanical, then it belonged to an artificial life form. Something that never was alive, so it could never be dead.

"A machine is not man, but a man can be a machine." Once again there was the sound of his voice.

Perhaps the strange breathing had once been his as well. But he could not remember.

"Who was I?" He called out to the twisted trees and the darkling river and the looming mountains of black dust. "Tell me!"

But no one heard him. And no one could help him.


	2. A Prisoner In The White Heart Abyss

**A Prisoner In The White Heart Abyss**

"This is death, dearest."

The voice spoke in a whisper that echoed through the chamber, ripping through him like an explosion.

Anakin cried out in pain.

He was trapped in the darkest of spaces. Caught in the center of a deep and bright abyss ...the light here was so overwhelming, a blinding white. He had been here for what felt like thousands and thousands of years, and here he would remain until eternity claimed him along with the universe and swallowed them both back into the Greatness of Nothing.

"Only death is true now. And you must die again. And again." The Keeper's voice was ice, and it poured into his center.

"Never!"

The voice of the Keeper laughed. "You must die again! You have died twice in the physical world. But your soul has been split into two in the Netherworld. So you see, you will die again and again while you are here with me." And she laughed once more, a poisonous sound to his hearing.

He was falling deeper into the center of the abyss now, like a sinking ship being pulled down to the bottom of a sea. Down, down, down...

But then he was pulled back into the glowing frigid nightmare called the White Heart Abyss. Pulled back with brittle fingers made from shards of glass...the splinters ripped into his flesh, creating tiny flickers of pain. And the harshness of the white light tore into his eyes, forcing them shut, just to provide some small measure of relief from this misery.

"Open your eyes!"

Anakin held his eyes shut. The harlot could not command him to do anything.

Fingernails like daggers pierced his eyelids, and pulled them back, forcing his eyes open.

"You cannot hide." The Keeper floated before him, a beam of brilliant blue light that only served to make the white walls surrounding him even more unbearable to his vision.

She spun in a circle. Then the form stopped, and transformed into a column. One more shift, and it turned into a woman: raven-haired, with pale skin of ivory; delicately boned, and small in stature; ethereal and poisonous.

She held out her arms, gathering him to her body like a mother embracing her child. "You were a blessing from the Force. But look at what you turned out to become...the ultimate curse." She reached out one finger to trace a dagger-nail around his throat. "You stupid boy. You are the one that did this to yourself."

He ripped himself out of her monstrous clasp. "It was not my fault. I was seduced by the Dark Side."

"Seduced by the Dark Side? Or seduced by that woman?" The Keeper smiled. "I have an idea. Watch now. I will become your beloved."

The corpse-pale face melted away, to be replaced by the familiar and lovely features of Padme.

But this face was false. He knew Padme was gone.

The Padme simulacrum drew back her hand across the face, and dug her dagger-nails into the flesh, drawing blood.

"These tears are her own. She cries in the pit, mourning for you." The Keeper laughed again, a shrill shriek of insane delight. "Even though you killed her! And those tears are what froze in her veins the moment she died. She died right in front of you that day, but you did not feel it."

"No! I did not kill her!"

"You do not remember? Then you must see once again what that day brought!" She pointed at one of the chamber's glaring walls of pure white.

On the wall, a vision began to form...and once more, he saw the nightmare. Of the molten world...then came her ship, descending into the place of hell where everything beautiful and glorious would end. And there was the encounter, then the confrontation...

"No, that did not happen!"

His black-gloved hand curled into claws, and unseen fingers tightened around her throat...she collapsed to the ground.

"She never came to Mustafar!" Anakin pointed to the wall. "That is a false vision!"

The Keeper smiled, a gentle and mocking blossom on her white lips. "Do you forget so easily? Of course this happened."

He turned his back on her. "You lie! I know the truth!"

She materialized in front of him, her hands folded at her stomach in the ancient symbol of prayer. "You cannot deny the truth. You killed her." Her voice lowered into a hiss. "Just as you destroyed so many others." Then the Keeper opened her hands. "That is what brought you here to the Abyss. And you made this prison for yourself. So you will remain here. And I will continue to show you the truth."

Anakin grimaced. "Lies are all you tell me. And all you show me. I know the truth. She did not die, and I was not the one who took her life."

The Keeper reached out and placed a death-cold hand on his arm. "You will come to know the truth. And you will see what a monster you are."

He spun around, looking for an exit out of this torture. "No! No more lies! I am not a monster! Let me go!" His gaze traced quick and frantic lines along the endless walls of white, seeking an exit.

But there was no way out. And no one could help him.


End file.
